There are certain biomarkers in the body that are associated with life altering diseases such as cancer and the like. In many instances, early treatment of such life threatening diseases give the patient much increased odds of beating such a disease. It follows that early detection of such a life threatening disease is critical.
Currently, the detection of biomarkers associated with disease has been measured in blood serum and other body fluids via assays in a diagnostic laboratory setting. The patient has to make an appointment at a lab or doctors office and to have bodily fluid drawn. The bodily fluid is then tested to determine if the biomarkers are present. These tests are typically administered to patients of selected ages or selected risk categories identified in studies or as indicated by patient or family medical history. There is no way to detect when the biomarkers may first present themselves other than a doctor “getting lucky” with the timing of a test. In many instances, a life threatening disease may have progressed well beyond the initial stages by the time a patient is tested. This can even happen in a good patient that follows the recommendations of medical professionals. Of course, if a person should fall outside of one of the identified risk categories, the disease may progress to a very late stage before the disease is diagnosed or detected. Many patients also procrastinate and hold off on getting a needed test even though they may have been identified by a medical professional as being in a high risk group for testing. In many cases, a life threatening disease advances well beyond its initial stages.
Radiological medical diagnostics, such as Computed Tomography and Positron Emission Tomography, are also used to detect life threatening diseases. However, the radiological diagnostics also fail to detect a high percentage of tumors in certain parts of the body. For example, these radiological diagnostics have difficulty in finding tumors in the pelvic cavity, as is the case for Ovarian Cancer, due to high “clutter levels”, extremely small signatures and human error. Simply put, a radiologist studying the results of a radiological diagnostic test can easily miss a life threatening disease in its early stages. Typically, the patient waits for another period before radiological retesting. The disease may not be in the early stages of development by the time the life threatening disease is actually detected using radiological diagnostic tools.